The goal
In every round, the two teams compete for the 120 points in the deck. The team that takes more than 60 marks dots on its cross, the tally drawn on the score sheet. The first team to reach four dots wins the game.
Players and partnerships
There are four players. Partners sit across from each other, and play goes counterclockwise: after you, it's the turn of the player on your right.
The 40-card deck
Remove the 8s, 9s and 10s. That leaves ten cards in each suit: ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, jack, queen and king. Each player gets ten cards.
Card ranking and points
Within a trick, cards rank in this order: ace, seven, king, jack, queen, 6, 5, 4, 3 and 2. Note that the seven comes right after the ace, and the jack outranks the queen.
- Ace
- 11 points
- Seven
- 10 points
- King
- 4 points
- Jack
- 3 points
- Queen
- 2 points
- 6, 5, 4, 3 and 2
- No points, but they still count as cards taken
Across all four suits, the deck holds 120 points.
The deal and the trump
The dealer deals ten cards to each player, starting with the player on their right and going counterclockwise. The last card is the dealer's own: it stays face up, and its suit is trump for the round.
In the next round, the deal passes to the player on the right.
How a trick is played
- The player to the dealer's right leads.
- Each player puts one card on the table, counterclockwise.
- If you hold the suit led (the suit of the first card), you must play it. This is called following suit.
- If you have none of the suit led, you may play a trump or discard any card.
- The highest trump wins the trick. If nobody played a trump, the strongest card of the suit led wins.
- Whoever wins the trick collects the four cards for their team and leads to the next trick.
Each round has ten tricks, played until all the cards are gone.
Counting and dots
At the end of the round, each team adds up the points in the cards it took. The team with more points marks its cross:
- 61 to 90 points
- 1 dot
- 91 to 119 points
- 2 dots
- 120 points, when the other team took at least one card
- 2 dots (even if that card is worth nothing)
- 120 points without leaving the other team a single card
- Clean sweep: 4 dots, and the game ends on the spot
- 60–60
- Nobody scores. The dot carries over and goes to whoever wins the next round
Winning the game
The first team to reach four dots on its cross wins. If the game ends 4–0 over two or more rounds, it is a shutout: the losing team never scored.
Revoking
A revoke is failing to follow suit when you hold the suit led. At the tables on Selminha.com, the player who sets up the table decides how revokes are handled:
- Revokes blocked
- The game only lets you play legal cards, so nobody can revoke.
- Revokes allowed
- You may revoke at your own risk. Any player can call out an opponent until the points are counted, and the table checks the record of plays. If the revoke happened, the accused team loses the game; if it did not, the accuser's team loses.
Weak hand
The player who leads the round, if they hold 9 points or fewer, may call a weak hand before playing the first card. The cards are dealt again, and the deal passes to the next player. Only the player who leads may call it.
Tips for beginners
- Keep track of the trumps that have been played: knowing how many are still out helps you decide when to trump.
- The ace and the seven are worth 21 points together. Avoid throwing them on a trick an opponent can still trump.
- When your partner is already winning the trick, take the chance to throw a card with points.
- Trumping a low-value trick uses up a trump that could win more later.
Variations of sueca
Sueca has been played for a long time in Portugal and Brazil, and every table tends to have its own house rules: how a clean sweep is scored, the weak hand, the penalty for revoking. The rules on this page are the ones used at the tables on Selminha.com, and the player who sets up the table also chooses the scoring (live or only at the end) and revokes (blocked or allowed).